1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for managing one or a plurality of devices through a network so as to enable collective setting to be performed on the one or the plurality of devices, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known device management systems that perform collective setting on printing devices such as a plurality of printers and MFPs (Multi Function Peripherals) through a network (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-213110, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-197935, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3743371 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 4013072). The systems capable of performing setting on the plurality of devices through the network and managing the devices do not require an operator to go over to places where the devices are provided and perform the setting thereon. Thus, the setting can be performed in a short time and the management thereof is easy.
Information to be set includes much information: IP address, subnet mask, installation location, user name, password, communication mode of a FAX unit, FAX number, and address book for electronic mail, and so on.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-213110 proposes a network management device that is connected to at least one device through which information can be acquired using SNNP/MIB through a network, and that sets setting items in the device. The network management device includes a unit that checks the presence of Object ID in order to list devices connected to the network and a unit that sets Object ID in the device so as to input set values of the setting items in the Object ID whose presence is checked by the unit. This allows the setting items such as various protocols to be collectively set in a plurality of devices by one operation.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-197935 proposes a device setting apparatus that performs setting on a plurality of target devices connected to a network. The device setting apparatus includes a unit that receives collective setting information in which identification information to identify each of the plurality of target devices on the network is associated with device set information to be set in each of the plurality of target devices, and a device setting unit that identifies each of the target devices on the network by the identification information based on the collective setting information received by the unit and collectively sets device set information in the plurality of target devices through the network. This allows set information according to each target device to be easily set in the plurality of target devices without the need of acquiring information such as a model name from the plurality of target devices.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 3743371, there are provided a unit that identifies a plurality of target devices being targets whose operational states are managed, among the devices, a unit that sets management control information for setting the operational state of the target device, and a unit that outputs the management control information to the target devices through a network and collectively sets the operational states of the target devices, so that the load of the devices that manage operational states is reduced.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 4013072, there are provided a unit that checks a plurality of devices whether each of the devices satisfies predetermined target setting requirements, a unit that selects the device that satisfies the requirements as a setting target device, a unit that determines setting data to be transmitted to setting target devices, and a unit that collectively transmits the setting data to the setting target devices, so that there is no need for a user to select a device requiring the transmission of the setting data, which enables erroneous selection by the user to be prevented and change of the setting to be easily implemented.
However, in the conventional systems, because the setting process is synchronously performed between the device management system and the device, the device management system cannot shift to a next process until the setting process is completed in the device, which causes a waiting time to occur. More specifically, until the setting process is completed in the device, the device outputs notification that the process is completed, and the device management system receives the notification, the device management system cannot transmit setting information to a next device and cause it to perform the setting process.
Consequently, the more the number of devices being targets for setting or the number of set values to be set in one device increases, the longer the entire processing time becomes.
Therefore, it has been desired to provide a system and a method capable of quickly performing a process for collective setting on a plurality of devices.